On 07/06/05 17:46 ET, Warren said...
works just like a car antenna. FM is broadcast in both
the horizontal and vertical planes. Since there
is less man-made noise in the horizontal plane,
mount the thing horizontlly if you can.... But
will work fine either way.
FM antennas are mounted at right angles to the plane they receive. If you take the link to the Magnum Dynalab description, you will read that their vertical antenna focuses on the horizontal plane.
I usually use the signal from the TV antenna, but I don't know if you are using a TV antenna there.
Are the signals in Santa Barbara pretty much coming from one place? If not, the Winegard may not get everything equally well. And if you are in a canyony location, a non-directional such as the Magnum Dynalab might give you multipath.
Try the bare wire approach first, and see if orientation matters. This will help you decide if you need a horizontal antenna (Winegard, for instance), or a vertical one.
Don't be fooled into thinking an FM antenna should be 45" long because the Dynalab one is, either -- that thing at the bottom is a loading coil that makes it appear electronically to be much longer than it is, probably about 1.5 meters.